blah blah fast blah blah crazy blah blah poop

yep that about covers the race report. if you need more details keep reading.

we had been planning a 'get away race' for a while and logan looked like a winning venue. to round out the mountain experience we rented a cabin out near waynesville. here's the recap.

friday alysia and i set out on the 4 hour drive west. we loaded our bikes and mountain of sh*t into the back of my truck and off we went. we sort of had directions, a garmin that i think had some power left and my crackberry capable of telling you where you are within 2000m. lovely. no worries.

we covered the gammet of topics. unless you are a 30something woman you would probably find your ears bleeding. but we had fun. Alysia and i laugh alot because we are truly polar opposites. and it is RARE we actually find something we have in common. really. so far the list is short - triathlon, coffee (well anti-coffee), little debbie snack products, and football. yet somehow the friendship grows. amazing. ha.

anyway we somehow found packet pick up. no kidding this is the conversation we heard in front of us.

girl #1: yea so the crispy creme challenge makes sense - you BURN CALORIES while you run. (for those of you outside of carolina - that race you run 3miles eat a dozen doughnuts then run 3 miles. puking optional).
girl #2: so i dont get the tobacco trail run. you BURN TAR OUT OF YOUR LUNGS. that is such an unhealthy race.

yes. i swear. said with a straight face, and then a bit of a perpensive look. she was wearing a nc state shirt so...HA!!

we stopped by subway to get some dinner and asked the cashier how to best get back on the highway. she said "i have no idea". i said but the highway is right there. she said - yea i dont know. UMMM are you kidding. how the F did you get to work today. get to a place that is literally 50 yds from the highway we want to get on. and you have no idea? ok.

now onto the cabin. after a few turn arounds we finally found out place. at the top of a ski slope. really. the grade on this driveway had to be 25%.

cabin- A+. hopefully pictures to come. i was not the official photographer. very rustic. so rustic in fact while munching we heard some scrathing noises up in the loft (where we would be sleeping) and jumped.. umm squirrels in the house? good thing the gaals and tassie showed up. first thing we did was make marty and tassie go look under the beds for critters. PHeW all clear.

dinner made. stories told and wake up call determined for race morning. it was a 7am start so out of the house by 5. good god.

sleep. no ac. just open windows and the sound of crickets. foot ball fan crickets.. like when you go to carolina and one side says TAR the other side HEELS. over and over and over and over...

race morning. some grumpiness. some lube. some peanut butter. some more lube. "got all your stuff?". shrug. ok lets go.

arrive at the site in total darkness. pumping up tires in said darkness is not desirable. they should make guages on pump glow in the dark. AKL has special tires so she hit up the bike guys (and they hit on her.. shocker!). anyway chips, set up T, the usual trips to the john.. and woods.. and well.. warm up done. wet suit (sweet!!!) partially on and over to the swim start. we missed the first wave and spent some time trying to figure out where the turn buoy is. got in the water for a short warm up. it was blissfully cool. even with the full suit. what a welcome feelign that was.

found cari s and we lined up for our start. BG and AKL had started in another wave. i knew cari and i would somehow end up bumping into each other at the start of the swim. swimming over each other several times (my fault) and then seperating. only to come out about 4 seconds apart at the end. that pretty much happened. my thoughts on the swim. water was calm. cool. clear. at one point you could see the bottom. i swam pretty well. kept thinking about my elbows. and my arms actually kind of started to hurt so i guess i was actually swimming for once. about time.

exit the swim by hauling yourself up onto a dock. yep thats NOT easy. especially when there are about 15 others trying to do the same thing. we were the last wave so the entire race was ahead of us. lovely.

had a bit of trouble getting the WS off. bugger. then for some reason i just kind of freeze up and think ok what do i need to do.. oh right get the hell on my bike. running out of T1 there was a small aisle to get thru. people ahead were walking. i was angry. i yelled. they slowed. i yelled again. they stopped. i ran over them. oh well. on the bike. i felt great. really strong and on top. i even think i handled some of the techincal turns pretty well and came off them faster. win for me. the last half of the race is into a head wind and is a constant uphill culminateing in a pretty steep long climb at the end. i just put my head down.

came into T2 and was ready. the run was 5k up hill and then 5k down. the BEST part was the run was shady. wow. compared to running in 110 this was heaven. i didnt even have to drink any water. nice. so anyway. good run for me. probably slacked a bit too much on the up ... but decent over all run.

we all ended up having good races. saw some friends and enjoyed the post race and awards before heading out to lunch in waynes ville. ** side note. if anyone knows the RD he is a jerk. he hosed alicia p out of $100. loser.

back to the cabin to just sit on the porch all afternoon. pretty nice way to spend the day. we finally got all cleaned up and headed over to asheville and tupelo honey. one of my fav restaurants there. since we had an odd party of 5 we had to wait for a bigger table. an hour later i think the grumpy had returned and we started talking (a bit too loudly) about this retarded family that was souvenier shopping and taking up our table! evil eyes were literally popping out of my head.
finally dinner and then cupcakes!! and then bed. yep we lead life in the fastlane.

up on sunday morning we wanted to do a 'recovery spin'. not so easy in the blue ridge so MBG mapped out a route around maggy valley. turned otu to only be a few killer climbs.. and really pretty. nice to get out and get a little blood flowing again. AKL had such a fun time racing that she wore her aero helmet, race wheels and numbers. what a competitor. ha!!

on the way home we stopped in asheville again for lunch. salsarita's. wow. good stuff. try the plantains.

time to hit the road. of course we are chatting and following marty.. well i miss the 40 east exit and we end up on some weird road. turns out he missed the exit and got on 40 west. guess we were more tired than we thought.
anyway
GREAT weekend.